Achilles
by DesertWriter01
Summary: "...Jack paused for a moment as he stood just out of the hatch and looked out to the east. Watching as the last remnants of the mornings beautiful sunrise and had an oddly distinct feeling... that after today's flight he wouldn't gaze upon the sunrise the same as he had for his entire life." The first chapter in a novel I am in the process of writing, hope you all enjoy!


**Achilles**

In the early morning hours of the scorching desert, the sunrise had just started to peek out over sand dunes grafting a slight golden glow that settled barely above the horizon and just underneath the dark overcast of the still and dark night sky. The light was just barely creating enough light to illuminate a large United Sates Army Air Forces air field. Tents were spread out across the desert basin separated into an organized chaos and into two different sized tent fields, with four large tents spread out among the rest of the tent fields. However most of the field was dominated by the long runway and was dotted with at least four-dozen American B-24s could be seen dotting the entire base.

* * *

Inside one of numerous tents, 2nd Lieutenant Jackson Monroe was laying on-top of his cot inside of his tent. One knee propped up and eyes open, just staring aimlessly up at the top of the tent with his vibrant emerald green eyes, while his tent mate was still fast asleep right next to him. Just then another man walked into the tent, the man looked to be about 5' 10" with about ear-length auburn hair, and had a 'bored as hell' look in his dark brown eyes. The guy looked like he was maybe in his mid-to-late-twenties and had a dark tan on his skin that showed that he had out here for at least a few months. Looking at the olive colored dress-uniform that he had on, Jack could see that the man was a captain judging by the two silver bars that sat on his collar.

After taking a quick look around the tent the captain noticed Jack staring at him. "Ah, Lieutenant you're up already! Well than, that makes my job a lot easier, from what I hear from my fellow captains you would not wake up at all even if they dropped a 100-pound bomb on you," the captain said with good-natured smile on his face, "well your crew has a mission briefing in fifteen minutes."

Jack just gave the captain a curt nod in acknowledgement and the man turned around and walked quickly out into the cool desert morning. As the captain left the tent Jack lunged himself into a more upright position and sung his legs off the edge of his cot.

"Well, time to get to work," he muttered to himself with a slight smile and a long sigh before pushing his 5' 11" frame off the cot with great heave of his muscular but still slim arms. While Jack was stretching out his arms and legs trying to get some feeling back into them, he took a glance over to sleeping form of his bunkmate and childhood best friend, 1st Lieutenant Matthew J. Smith. Jack ran his left hand through his shaggy and untamed, charcoal-black colored hair and then down his lean face as the last remnants of sleep left his lean 22-year-old frame. As he walked over towards Matthew's cot, Jack suddenly got a small mischievous smile on his face. He walked over towards the left side of Matthew's cot and leaned in lose to his right ear, took in a deep, quiet breath and screamed out, "WE'RE UNDER ATTACK! THE JERRY'S ARE HERE!"

The reaction was immediate, Mathew's startled blue eyes shot open as he flipped out of his cot and starting flailing around on the ground, trying frantically to get off the floor. It only took Matthew a moment or two to get up into at least a crouched position as he frantically reached for his .45 caliber, Colt M1911 pistol that he thought was sitting in its holster on the right side of his hip. As soon, as Matthew realized that little fact he took in his surroundings and then heard someone howling with laughter in the background.

Jack in the meantime was doubled over, with one arm propped up on his friend's cot laughing his head off at Matthew's little panic attack. "Jack! Why the hell did you do that you son of a bitch!" he screamed out with a furious look on his bright red face and cheeks towards Jack who was in the middle of trying catching his breath.

"The… the look… the look on your… your face was hilarious!" Jack barely managed to get out due to his lack of breath and continuous laughter at his friend's very short, yet hilarious, spout of panic and great confusion. Matthew slowly stood up and glared over at Jack before he started chuckling which then turned into full blown laughter a few seconds later. The two friends stayed like that for a few precious moments, just laughing a have a fun time before Matthew stopped and gained Jack's attention.

"So what did you wake me up for Jack?" Matthew asked with a curious look plastered across his face and obviously a little annoyed by his friend's actions judging by the look in Matthew's eyes. Jack looked up at his old friend and as his face switched from a laughing and joking one to a serious one, his attitude shifted as well.

"We have a mission briefing in fifteen… make that twelve minutes," Jack said while glancing over his watch, before he turned around and rushed over towards his side of the tent to throw on his khaki colored dress uniform and pants. After throwing them one he turned around and made sure that he had his .45 strapped on his hip and then grab his shoes, after throwing them on quickly he turned towards Matthew who was still in the process of getting his pants on.

"Hey Matthew," Jack said causing Matthew to look over towards him, "since your busy right now. I am going to head over towards Mikey and Archie's tent and make sure those two up," he finished thinking about their crew's 21-year-old bombardier and 25-year-old navigator.

"Yeah, sure Jack, go on ahead and make sure those two knuckleheads wake up considering how much those drank last night they're probably having one heck of a hangover right about now," Matthew said with a sigh as he turned his attention back towards ready for the mission briefing. Matthew spun back around, Jack walked out of the tent and turned left as he made his way towards his crewmates bunks. As he walked, Jack's mind wandered towards his friends who had become more a second family to him, Archie Randolph the 25-year-old navigator and Michael Stanley a 21-year-old bomb dropper. Jack and Matthew had met the two 2nd Lieutenants when they were assigned to the same plane with the other five crew members, all nine of them flew in on their plane, the _Iron Lady_. Archie was a student at Harvard University before the damn Japs bombed Pearl two years ago. After Archie heard what happened he ran out of his classes along with 10 others and went to sign up, but Archie wasn't with that group. He instead, went to learn how to become a navigator and then wound up getting assigned to the _Iron Lady_ with the rest of the rest . Michael Stanley on the other hand is the bombardier of the _Lady_ and the little prankster and loveable troublemaker of the crew. Mickey was married to his high-school sweetheart and had left his wife, Martha, and their unborn kid in a small town somewhere in Massachusetts. He and Archie stayed together during their training days and became close friends over time before being assigned to the _Lady_. There the nine of them became close-nit crew and most of them became each other's second family and the _Lady_ became their home away from home. Speaking of crew, they had at least seven combat missions under their belts from the nine months the crew had been in with the 98th Bomb Group all over Libya, Tunisia, and one over Sicily. "Hey Jack!" Jack was shaken from his thoughts from the Tennessee accent of one of his old flight school friends, Evan Johnston.

Evan was 22-year-old pilot of the crew of the _Musical City_ , and three more completed combat missions than Jack's crew. Evan was about the same height as Jack but was just an inch or two shorter than him and a bit of a bulkier frame than Jack had. He also had very vibrant red hair with thin strips blonde hair give a sort golden shine to it and bright green eyes seem to draw in all the women on base. The two met in flight school because they had the same dorm room together along two others, and found out that Evan was from Memphis and was very good with a guitar. Evan and Jack quickly became quick friends and helped each other all throughout flight school and eventually were transferred out together to the 98th. Then Jack noticed that Evan had bags under his eyes and that his shoulders were sagging a little and it looked like he didn't get much sleep.

"Hey Evan you alright there man, 'cause no offense but you look like crap," Jack remarked towards Evan with a smile gracing his lips. Evan apparently noticed the smile and shook his head as he cracked a small smile of his own.

"Jee, thanks Jack, I already know that I look like crap you prick. We had late night mission last night, didn't get back home till around twenty-three-hundred last night," Evan said with a deep sigh, "so I'm tired as hell right now." Jack winced in sympathy having flown a few late-night missions within the last month.

"Anyways, did you hear about what happened Davis?" Evan asked, suddenly gaining a sad faraway look in eyes, completely taking Jack off-guard. Then he realized he hadn't heard anything from their old roommate, Davis Gordon.

"No, I haven't heard anything, why? What happened to him?"

"It happened last night during our mission. Davis and two others got shot down by fighters, didn't see any chutes so I don't know if anyone got out of there," Evan said with long look out towards the sunset.

"Jesus, so the Grimm Reaper strikes again huh?" Jack said in more of statement than a question sad that he had lost another close friend in this seemingly never-ending war.

"Yeah, I guess so…" Evan trailed off and the two continue to walk in silence towards Archie and Michael's tent. When the two reached the tent Evan said good-bye and headed off to check up on the other members of his own 'family'. Jack just stood there for a moment and sighed preparing himself for what was sitting just behind the tent flaps. After a second or two, Jack ducked his head and walked into the darkened tent.

* * *

The first thing that Jack had noticed as he walked into the tent was that everything was in disarray and that there were three empty bottles of whiskey that was sitting on top of a foot locker that had "2nd LT. Archie Randolph" stenciled in yellow writing on the top of the forest green foot-locker. Jack looked over the sleeping forms of their resident bombardier and navigator, Archie was sleeping soundly as if he was rock and knowing him it probably would take a couple of five-hundred bombs to wake him up. Michael on the other was probably having a bad nightmare again judging by the line of sweat that was dripping down his forehead and that his eyes were darting back and forth behind his closed eyelids. Jack just let out a low sigh in pity as he knew why Michael had nightmares every night.

Two months ago, the _Iron Lady_ was a part of a ten-ship flight with six P-40 Warhawks as air cover that was flying out to bomb a few enemy emplacements that was expected to have little to no flak fire and no fighter cover, rule number one of bomber squadrons never trust intelligence. Then just ten minutes from the IP, two squadrons of Luftwaffe Bf-109 Messerschmitts jumped the flight and shot down two B-24s in their first pass and the P-40s pulled off a went to engage the 109s.

In the ensuing dogfight one of the P-40s shot down a pesky 109 that managed to get behind the _Lady,_ down in flames, just before the pilot got jumped by another Jerry fighter. The P-40 was raked with the 109s machine guns, completely shredding the control surfaces of the P-40 and lighting the engine and the right wing on fire. Jack was on the right waist gun, seeing as how the actual waist gunner got shot in his shoulder, fired in rage at the Jerry fighter knocking out the engine in a big puff of black smoke and possibly killed or disabled the pilot because the 109 just rolled over and plummeted to the ground trailing smoke. The pilot of the P-40 managed to pull back and flew alongside right wing and flew alongside the battered _Lady_. The pilot looked at them, just looked at them. Jack looked over the damaged Warhawk and immediately knew that the P-40 pilot wasn't going to be coming home that night, and with the pilot's long and regretful look in his eyes he seemed to know that himself. And yet, the man seemed at peace and somehow… pleased, and somehow at peace, with himself, and the he looked straight into Jack's eyes, threw up a quick salute, which Jack returned with a sad smile. The P-40 waggled it wings at the _Lady_ before it rolled over on it's right wing and dove off into the dark cloud still trailing flames and smoke from its engine and wing. The plane showed no chance of recovering and slammed into the deck in a mangled heap of twisted steel and a raging fire. The crew never saw the pilot get out of the doomed plane or the tell-tale white canvas of a parachute canopy. The _Lady_ landed back at base a few hours later and after finishing the post-flight the crew ran towards the base commander's tent to see if there was any news about the pilot that was shot down.

We found out that the pilot that saved us was Michael's older brother, Jeffery Stanley. After finding that out Michael went into a deep depression after that and locked himself away for weeks and weeks. He also turned towards heavy drinking for a while trying his sorrows in the bottom of a bottle, about a month later Jack and the rest of the crew managed to coax Michael out of his depression although the drinking stuck much to the displeasure of the crew, even though Archie took to the drink after he found out about what happened to his two cousins that were serving aboard the _U.S.S. Juneau_ when it was blown to pieces with a torpedo at Iron Bottom Sound out in Guadalcanal.

Jack shook himself from his memories and walked over towards Archie's bunk and lightly shook the red-head to rouse him. One of Archie's eyes opened slightly and then closed almost it immediately after seeing the one who woke from his slumber and turned his head away. Hiding his face in his pillow almost childishly trying avoid Jack.

"Damn-it Jack, why are you waking me up so fucking early in the god-damn morning?" he moaned out from pillow.

"Come on old man, time to get up," Jack remarked with a smile on his face as he yanked the covers off Archie. He was also smiling because Jack knew that calling Archie an 'old man' got him all riled up, and as predicted, Archie eye's shot open as he sprang up off his cot and yanked the bed covers back from Jack's grasp as he was shouting out profanities towards Jack for calling him an 'old man.' Jack sat in the corner and smiled at Archie's little fanatics.

"Archie, I know the Jackass called you old but could you please just shut up? Your too loud and I'm trying to sleep here damn-it," a tired and worn down voice made itself heard yet it was muffled by the pillow that it's owners head was buried in. Michael Stanley turned his head towards us and opened his hazel-colored eyes and started staring at us accusingly for rudely waking him up.

"Sorry princess, us troublesome men shan't trouble thou any longer, and we may leave thou to thy dutiful rest 'o fair maiden," Jack remarked with Shakespearean accent and a large, mischievous grin that seemed to split his face. He was barely holding in his laughter and as he glanced over at Archie, it looked like he was also.

Michael look pleased with that answer… for about five seconds. His face shifted from a pleased look towards one of horror, anger and raging embar-rassment. As he opened his mouth to shout out a retort, but was interrupted by Jack.

"As much as you want to scream and curse at me, we have a mission briefing in less than ten minutes," Jack said quickly as he turned around and sprinted out of the tent before the two could start yelling at him. Jack stopped once he got out of the tent and waited for the two to walk out of their tent. He didn't have wait long as the pair stumbled out of their tent, and Jack looked on in amusement as the pair were squinting their eyes trying to get them adjusted to the harsh morning light.

"You two done yet," he asked with a tone of slight mocking and amusement, with a smile lighting up his face. Jack just chuckled, when he received two half-hearted glares from the pair.

"Well then," he said as he cleared his throat, "it's time to face the music. Let's get going to briefing room, we got a mission to do." After that was said the trio started walking towards the briefing room.

* * *

The word 'room' was downplaying it on a massive scale. The briefing 'room' was in fact not a room at all, but it was instead a gigantic warehouse that could fit three B-24s, several fighter planes, and still have enough room to comfortably walk around inside. Jack, Michael, and Archie waked inside and tried find Matthew within the wall of hundreds of pilots, bombardiers, and navigators wandering around the inside of the warehouse.

"Hey Jack, over here!" Matthew's voice rang out from the crowd as Jack saw him through the hordes of people.

Jack called the others attention as he started walking over towards Matthew. When the two met up they walked over some seats and sat down on the benches as they briefer, a captain, came walking onto the platform that had map sitting behind them that listed the positions of enemy forces, factories, emplacements and airfields across the African desert and even some positions in both Sicily and Italy.

The captain cleared his throat and the entire room quieted down.

"Good morning people, today we have two priority one targets. One of them is an enemy emplacement located here in Tunisia. Intelligence predicts that there will be light flak and little fighter cover over the target; therefore, we will be sending over a regular ten bomber formation with P-40 Warhawk escort fighters from the 62nd Fighter Group.

The other target is located within Sicily. You boys will be bombing a factory that has been producing enemy tanks and artillery pieces for the front lines. This will be a five-ship flight, and the fighter and flak cover is expected to be from very moderate to none.

Be sure to check your postings as you walk out. Now then gentleman, good luck and stay safe out there. Dismissed!" the captain finished off with a salute as everyone stood up and returned it as he walked off the stage.

Jack stood up with Matthew and the pair started to walk towards the large double doors that were the exit to the oversized briefing room. As they walked towards the doors, they met up with Archie and Michael.

"Man, I hope that we didn't get picked for that factory. I mean, come on, they're sending people out there deep into Jerry's backyard to bomb a factory with five planes instead of the normal ten. Not to mention the part with no damn fighter cover, hell it's practically a suicide mission!" Michael complained loudly.

"And, knowing our luck as soon as you said that we're going apart of the fifty-unlucky people going up," Jack admonished in a light tone as he looked at Michael. In response, Michael just slumped his shoulders in defeat.

The quartet exited the building and walked over towards the board where at least 20 pilots, navigators and bombardiers were flocking to. Jack managed to wedge his through the mob first and managed to get an angle where he could see the sheet with all the mission postings on it. After he quickly scanned the Tunisia mission and gained a little bit of hope and relief, since he didn't see his bird on the list. That hope however, was soon crushed in an instant. Jack's heart fell when he saw the _Iron Lady_ listed as one of the five planes flying into Sicily, with wheels up at 1130, and it looked like they were flying "Purple Heart Corner" also. "Purple Heart Corner" is the outside edges of the formations seeing as how in the few months that the crews had been there the Americans had quickly found out that the Nazi flak gunners just loved to shoot from the outside in. Resulting in many wounded and dead. People who survived being either shot or injured in the field are given the Purple Heart, which gave rise to the name "Purple Heart Corner," or as Jack liked to call it "PHC." The whole thing just seemed to practically scream "casualties."

Seeing this Jack just gave out a low sigh and walked out of the mob of people that slowly decreased in size, and as he walked away Jack slowly tilted his head back and looked up towards the sky. Jack wasn't much a of a praying man when he was a kid in Nebraska, but he sent out a short, silent prayer that his little 'family' would come back in one piece this time.

* * *

Jack looked around for the crew for a few moments before his eyes fell towards his fellow crew members who were all lounging about on one of the jeeps in-front of some of the tents. As he walked over towards the guys he started reminiscing about how he and met all of them. The first on that popped up in his mind was their 19 almost 20-year old tail gunner, Jake Terett, but everyone just called him J.T. He and his older brother, Mike, showed up three months after the _Lady_ 's first missions, the two came on after their original tail gunner was wounded in skirmish with a couple of 109s. J.T. a young kid who always managed to see the wonder and good in the world, and the kid was likeable to, not to mention that he had a sweetheart back home in Wyoming. His brother on the other hand was a different kettle of fish entirely. Mike was the _Lady_ 's left waist gunner, that used to be Jack's position seeing as how they were short one man in the early months that they had arrived in Africa. Mike was only a year older than J.T. but just looking at him you would've thought that he was at least in his mid-twenties. With his face always drawn up in either a scowl or a deep frown. Although, he did show another emotion sometimes, happiness, it had taken the entire crew over two months to come out of his little shell and to start talking to the crew. Also, nothing seemed to scare Mike and J.T. worse than Miranda Terett, Mike's twin sister and one of the nurses on the base. One time when the crew came from a mission, Mike had cut his hand on his gun when was loading a new can into the .50. Miranda had stitched up his hand personally and had him strapped down to the bed so that he couldn't leave it for the next three hours until she personally cleared him.

Mike was talking to his partner who was leaning up against the side of the jeep with his arms, Chris Harris. Chris was a pretty likeable guy with good attitude and sense of humor that came along with him. Then Jack's attention shifted to the plane's resident engineer and top-turret gunner, Joe Damon, who was currently occupying the hood of the jeep with his jacket draped over his eyes. Joe, was the same as Mike was when they first started out together, closed off and he didn't really talk much to the rest of the crew. However, the six months that they had been together had bonded the men in ways even themselves could not explain, Joe was actually a man of many talents as he could read, write, fix up any mechanical problems if you gave him a few hours to work. Joe was also on the shorter side of the crew with him being just about one to two inches taller than Kevin Hayes, the _Lady_ 's ball turret gunner. Kevin was around 5' 5" and stood up to around Jack's collarbone when standing next to him, and his short stature also led to a shortened temper as well, when people back home teased him about his height. It was hilarious though, to watch Kevin get mad at someone, his cheeks would turn as red as his fiery ginger colored hair, his dark green eyes would light up with a fire inside of them. However, Kevin's short stature made it almost impossible to take him seriously, and that's when Jack noticed the last member of the family of ten. Steve Edmonds, the radioman.

Steve, was sitting in the back of the jeep conversing with Matthew over something. Steve was the only guy on the plane who had never really fired a shot at the enemy in anger. He was really a pacifist and did not believe in fighting the war, which led to a great schism between the guys but was eventually mended, as Steve believed in serving his country and doing the right thing in the line of duty. Jack shook himself out of his thoughts and realized that he had stopped walking and was watching them all clustered around the little jeep. But instead of walking back to them all, he stood there and took in the sight before him. He watched as Michael, Archie and J.T. stand away from the jeep talking passionately about something, Joe asleep on top of the hood of the jeep. He saw Mike and Chris conversing with one another at the front of the car and noticed that Matthew, Steve and Kevin were lightly talking with each other, and as Jack watch all this unfold right before him. A warm feeling settled into his chest and a smile graced his lips as he saw all of his little family where together. Then Jack felt a moment of unease, as if some terrible would be occurring and soon. It turned that warmth in his chest to something more cold, malicious, and tense. Like this would be the last time that he would see this sight, the crew talking to each other and having fun and being friends, a family. He felt though, as if death itself or the grim reaper himself had placed a hand upon Jack's shoulder. He quickly shook off the feeling and took a look around him as if he was looking for someone, and mustered up his courage to walk forward towards the crew.

* * *

"Hey guys! Jack's back!" J.T. called out to the rest, he had been the only one who noticed Jack walking towards them. Jack just shook his head as his lips crept and curled up into a smile. Michael turned around quickly so that he could face Jack, with an eager look on his face that seemed almost too eager for their line of work.

"So…" he asked with expression on his face that was almost impossible to ignore, with wide brown eyes and a wide grin that almost to threatened to split his face in two.

"So, what?" Jack responded with a nonchalant expression, as he looked at Michael with a questioning look in his eyes that was faked and a raised eyebrow, much to Michael's ire and irritation.

"The mission! What's the mission, you prick?! Are we going to Tunisia or are we hitting the factory?"

"I'll tell you guys about it on the way," Jack said compromising easily, "right now we have to get the plane prepped and ready to take off in…" Jack took a quick look at his watch and noticed that it was 1037, "…less than an hour."

That spurred everyone else to get up and started moving to the jeep and piled onto the car. Matthew stopped talking with Steve and Kevin as everyone was moving, who just stayed sitting in the back, and threw himself up into the passenger in the front. J.T. and Michael stopped talking with Archie, and ran over to the right side of the jeep and sat down on the side of it while Archie over and sat on the other side of the car. Mike and Chris, look over at Jack for a moment before they climbed into the Willys. Kevin and Steve just perked up at the fact that everyone started moving around so quickly, while Joe just lifted his cap off his head and looked around in confusion for about two seconds, and went back to sleep.

Jack just stared at Joe with a raised eyebrow and with scoff of annoyance and light amusement, shook his head at Joe's actions. Then he grabbed the key and turned the engine over, starting the car with a loud roar. Jack shifted the car into first gear and started down the dirt roadway that started to become clogged with the traffic of both the base personnel and other B-24 flight crews. After about three minutes of driving Matthew leaned over slightly to Jack side.

"This isn't like you, Jack. You usually tell us what the mission is right before we head over to plane. What makes this one so different, then all the others?" he asked just loud enough for Jack to hear over the crunching noise of the car driving down the dirt road, but quiet enough so that they couldn't be overheard by the rest of the crew.

Jack just closed his eyes with dread as he knew that the question would come up sooner or later and the fact that he could not just ignore his childhood best friends question. He pulled the car to a stop as he came to an intersection that small supply convoy was in the middle of crossing. Jack breathed in a small sigh as he sat there for a few seconds ponder his answer inside of his head.

"Sicily… we're hitting the 109 factories in Sicily," he finally answered.

"Ah, shit!"

* * *

The Willys Jeep turned around the corner of a row of tents and came driving on to the large staging area that had a couple of B-24s sitting out on the field. The planes were either being loaded with bombs and munition or they were being prepped for take-off as dozens of crew members both ground and flight crews were rushing around. Jack just kept his foot on the gas pedal as he weaved his way through the many people that were moving all over the place.

"So where did you guys park her?" he asked as he leaned over to Matthew asking.

"Right over there," Matthew respond point out the B-24 was the closest to the desert runway. Jack nodded and guided the jeep over towards the massive plane. Jack smiled as he saw the side of the plane. The _Iron Lady_ 's nose art stood out proudly against the USAAF's desert brown color paint. It was a simple design; a dark blue circle with a yellow border around it, cursive writing that said, 'Iron Lady' was painted in red off and in the left side of the blue circle while a young dark-haired woman stood off to the right of the circle. She wore a white sailor uniform with blue collar on it. The hem of the uniform was hitched up slightly, showing part of her stomach. Her top was contrasted with a blue skirt and red waistband. The most interesting part about the woman though was not her looks but the fact that she was carrying a large bomb over her shoulder. She also had this expression on her face that looked as if she were trying to encourage people to follow her example and help along. Jack stomped onto the brake threw the car into stop as he rolled up next to the plane, throwing Joe off the hood and rolling onto the ground. Joe cried out in both pain and surprise as he was roughly thrown off the hood and roughly onto the dirt. The guys burst into laughter at Joe's expense as he stood up and glared at Jack for a few seconds, before he started laughing along.

Matthew was the first one to settle down, "Alright guys let's get up in there and start our pre-flights and after those then we relax until takeoff."

"Hey, Jack! You never told us what the mission was." Kevin remembered.

"I'll tell after you get your pre-flight done 'Shorty.'" Jack shot at Kevin, who acted like he had actually been wounded. Much to amusement of the others. The guys headed off towards the _Lady_ , well, all but Jack and Matthew how stayed behind for a second to talk to one another. Matthew looked over to Jack for a second before talking.

"So, have you figured out how to break it to them yet? I mean the 'kids' all see you as their 'big brother' so they'll take the news better from you then they will from me or Archie. And Archie doesn't even know what we are hitting cause neither of us has told him. You know that and I know that, Jack," Matthew said to his childhood friend as he looked at the other eight crew members climb into the Liberator.

Jack just sighed and put his head down on his arms as he leaned over the hood of the car. "I realized that Matt. But how in the hell am I going to tell them that the mission that we're going on is going to probably be a one-way trip or some, if not all of us. Also, not the mention the fact that we are flying PHC this one."

That least one surprised Matthew is Jack had not mentioned it earlier, and threw his head to look over at Jack. "What?! We're flying in the Purple Heart Corner? Please tell me we aren't," he asked praying that he didn't hear that right. But to Matthew's horror Jack just his head in conformation.

"Fuck," Matthew muttered out as he looked back at the plane.

"Yeah," Jack answered with a quick quip.

Then as Jack picked his head up off his arms as J.T. stuck his head out of the hatch and looked at both of the two pilots and called out to the two of them, "Hey are you two going to come?! I mean we can't exactly fly this plane without our pilots on it!"

"Ah, put a can in it J.T.! We're coming, alright?!" Matthew shouted back to J.T. before turning his attention back towards Jack. "You ready?" he asked with a double meaning hidden in his words. Jack nodded his head as he reached into the car and grabbed his jacket and put his crushed cap on his head. The two friends walked side by side towards the plane and got into the lumbering Liberator, ready to fly the pane up and into the air. But Jack paused for a moment as he stood just out of the hatch and looked out to the east. Watching as the last remnants of the mornings beautiful sunrise and had an oddly distinct feeling. The feeling that after today's flight he wouldn't gaze upon the sunrise the same as he had for his entire life. He let out a low sigh and climbed into the plane with a smile on his face, as that same feeling of dread gnawing away at him.

* * *

 **A/N:** Hello guys it's me again, I am posting this as both an apology for not updating anything as of late and also to test the first chapter of a novel that I am writing. So leave a review and a favorite if you guys liked this little one shot and want me to turn it into a story. Also I will put the picture of the nose art as the cover image as soon as I finish drawing it. And yes, I AM drawing the picture and it is strictly my work so NONE of you guys can steal it!

DesertWriter01 out!


End file.
